Optical fiber connectors are already known for connecting optical fibers. The present invention relates to a device of a different type which is intended, not to provide a connection between optical fibers which is releasable at will, but rather to provide a permanent interconnection between optical fibers. By analogy with electricity, the present invention may be considered as providing a kind of splice for optical fibers, whereas connectors are like plugs and receptacles.
In this respect, a first aim of the present invention is to provide connection means which are cheap and easy to use, and which are particularly applicable to the installation of a complete optical fiber teledistribution network, for example. In such a network, multi-fiber cables need to be connected together and also to be split up at junction or distribution cabinets for setting up the network and for modifying connections to various subscribers.
The invention also aims to solve the difficult problems of connecting fibers end-to-end in a simple manner, which problems are mainly due to the fragility and to the very small size of the fibers. Further, the present trend is towards a continuing reduction of the diameter of the central portion or "core" of optical fibers.
Another difficulty which the present invention aims to solve is the fact that the fibers to be connected may have very slightly different diameters due to the spread of manufacturing tolerances between fibers of different batches or origins. The quality of the connections made must remain substantially constant in spite of such variations.
To solve the above problems, the invention provides a method of connecting optical fibers after a preliminary step of preparing at least two optical fibers for connection.